India’s largest GSM mobile operator Bharti Tele-Ventures has commissioned Siemens to equip the company’s network with EDGE (Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution) technology. This will allow Bharti to offer EDGE services to its customers in Kolkata. This is already Siemens’ third EDGE order in Asia and the twelfth worldwide.
During the first phase of the project, the mobile communication group at Siemens (Siemens mobile) will deliver and install by September of this year all the components required to commercially deploy EDGE in the network of Bharti’s subsidiary Airtel in Kolkata. EDGE permits data rates of up to 400 kilobit per second and, after GPRS, represents another “stepping stone” from GSM technology to UMTS.
“This order is another significant success in the particularly important Indian mobile communications market. We are pleased to be able to demonstrate the capability of our EDGE technology to our longstanding partner Bharti,” said Christoph Caselitz, President of Networks at Siemens mobile.
“EDGE is the new mantra in the global Internet connectivity scene and will allow us to offer high speed data services which are approximately three times those of GPRS. We have already launched our EDGE networks in India starting with Punjab and will subsequently be rolling out in 13 other cities in a phased manner. Siemens expertise and global know-how will therefore be a great asset for us†according to Mr. Manoj Kohli, President Mobility, Bharti Tele-Ventures.
With 7,67 million mobile customers (end of June 2004) , Bharti is India’s largest GSM mobile service provider. Siemens and Bharti have shared a close association starting with their partnership in fixed network business in 1998.
India is one of the world’s fastest growing mobile markets. To date, only four percent of India’s one billion inhabitants use mobile telephony. India is developing into the second most important market for Siemens mobile in Asia after China.